Most "N95" masks that are generally available (i.e. those from Home Depot) have the rubber flapper valves for exhalation. Think they do anything much useful med

Most "N95" masks that are generally available (i.e. those from Home Depot) have the rubber flapper valves for exhalation. Think they do anything much useful medically? How many people have you seen wearing clear plastic face shields or bandannas tied around their face like Ol' West banditos, with the bottom open? How about with the mask pulled down below their nose? (Disclaimer: I did that the other day; I was at the optometrist and my breath was fogging up the lens thingy.) The early pandemic mask messaging was wrong. A postmortem might very well find that they made the best recommendations they could based on what they knew.[1] Unless you've already decided that they screwed up because they're lying idiots. [1] See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26138301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26138301: "(I note that there was a meeting of epidemiologists in March, 2020, where famously, no one wore masks. How far are you willing to to go to lie?)"